Dancer
by Rhianwen
Summary: [Final Fantasy 5] Reina pursues a new hobby. Bartz gets distracted. Pure fluff. Enjoy! ^_^


Dancer  
  
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Disclaimer: The characters and concepts of Final Fantasy 5 do not belong to me. Please don't sue me, O Mighty Square of Everlasting Softness! [Author cowers in fear] Sadly you shall find that you gain very little - just half a Kit Kat, some stuffed animals, and the weirdest CD collection in existence.  
  
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Notes: Okay; this is probably the only Final Fantasy 5 story I'll ever write. It just sounded incredibly cute in my head, although I don't know if it came out that way... Anyway, I nonetheless hope that someone out there gleans a little enjoyment from it. Pairing is, quite obviously once you begin reading it, Bartz/Reina. Pure fluff in every sense of the words. ^_^  
  
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Bartz leaned back against the coarse bark of the tree and sighed gustily. An hour hiding here, and the irritation of the scratchy stuff against the back of his neck, not to mention the uncomfortable cramping in his calves and thighs, hadn't diminished any. Of course, this was by far the best option open to him right now, unless he wanted to go back out there with his friends.  
  
And HER.  
  
Utter terror of this option made him think of the simple word in capitals. She would only have to get a vague hint of where his thoughts had dwelt for the past hours, whether or not against his will being beside the point, and he could very well have the armies of Tycoon to deal with.  
  
Frowning, he thought very hard. Was thinking impure thoughts about a princess considered a crime punishable by death?  
  
Well, he was reasonably sure that HE didn't want to be the poor sap to take that chance. An angry - and very ferocious - older sister, growing more and more protective every day as of late, might be even worse. And, of course, there was the option that might not end in his physical injury, but in her furious, tearful declaration that their friendship was over if he couldn't bring himself to be a gentleman.  
  
This was by far the worst in his mind.  
  
Exasperating as she could be sometimes, not the least of all now, her friendship had come to mean more than he, with the awkward words of a man more skilled with swords than speech-making, could have expressed.  
  
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Still, none of this changed the fact that he was seriously beginning to rue that day a week ago, the day they had collected the shards of the shattered Earth Crystal - for more reasons than the obvious. At the time, none of them had been terribly interested in mastering new abilities, all having other, and more immediate concerns. Even after, they hadn't bothered to carefully consider the benefits of the new abilities the shards would grant them, wanting instead to get immediately to where Cid and Mid waited to send them in the meteor to the other planet. Although none had spoken of it, both girls and Bartz had felt very clearly the difference in the atmosphere without Galuf. Bartz in particular had missed the wisdom of the old man, and his ability to see through the seeming direness of any situation and find the hope, and perhaps more important, the humour. The absence of the twinkling grey eyes, barely dimmed by age, had left more of a gap than Bartz, who had spent his life primarily alone, would have believed possible for any person to leave.  
  
Even through his current discomfort, he suppressed a snicker at the recollection of the old man's reaction earlier in the day when Faris had related in disgust that one of their most recent acquisitions, a shard of the earth crystal, had contained whatever dubious wisdom was necessary in the occupation of a Dancer.  
  
Galuf, taking in Faris' disgust, had pulled a straight face and announced solemnly that it seemed like a good one to him; as soon as they'd set up camp, he fully intended to head back to town to go shopping for what he needed to pursue such a hobby. A ribbon, some comfortable yet sensationally sexy shoes, a dancin' dress...  
  
At this point, Faris had put him in a headlock, and the clearing had echoed with the pained howls of both, Faris' from the mental image of Galuf in such attire, and Galuf from the erstwhile pirate's very skilled wrestling manoeuvre.  
  
At the time, Bartz had laughed heartily at the antics of his friends, and had barely noticed when Reina had become very thoughtful and announced her intention of taking some time out of training and heading into the town for a while.  
  
Ah, if he had but noticed that thoughtful expression at the time, he could have been at least prepared for what the evening would bring! But who would have thought that Reina would have become so fixated on THAT occupation? He'd been so sure that she was starting to grow up a little, and to realize that this wasn't a nice world, and everyone wouldn't be looking after her out here like they did at Tycoon castle.  
  
That maybe she would've made a sensible choice of travelling clothes and weapon.  
  
Instead, the little princess had chosen to dance around the clearing where they had set up camp ten miles from Lugor, waving a ribbon.  
  
'And driving me crazy in the process,' Bartz lamented silently.  
  
To be sure, complaining had been far from his mind initially. When his longest-term travelling buddy had stepped out from behind the canvas hung between two trees that served the girls as an impromptu dressing room, clad in her purchases of earlier, suitable to the pursuit of this hobby, he had been the last to complain. With the slinky gown of midnight blue, strapless and slit high up each leg, clinging to her lithe curves like a second skin, flimsy, strappy shoes with high, tapered heels, her flame-hued hair swinging unfettered about her face save for the carnation - the one that he had playfully offered to her earlier that day! - tucked behind her ear, she had made a picture that had him gawping in all too open admiration instead of stealing glances as he was more used to doing.  
  
"Nice," Galuf had drawled in appreciation that, although over-emphasized for the sake of humour, was honest.  
  
"Thanks," Reina had giggled, ducking her head shyly and blushing slightly as her eyes had caught Bartz's over the older man's shoulder. The carnation slipped free and fell to the grass.  
  
And of course, that had been the moment that her recollection that a girl must do things for herself had kicked back in. As she had stooped to retrieve the flower, the non-existent neckline of her dress had left very little to the imagination of the unfortunate Bartz, who had found himself compelled to duck quickly behind a tree in order to keep his...embarrassment to himself.  
  
"Don't ye think it be a bit impractical?" he had faintly heard Faris asking dubiously as he bolted.  
  
Hmph! Impractical! That was one word for it. 'Mean' would have been a better one.  
  
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Finally, an hour later, he climbed to his feet, stretched his cramped muscles gingerly, and peeked around the tree...  
  
...and promptly whipped back around again, sinking to the ground and breathing out shakily. The image of Reina spinning coquettishly about would definitely be etched into his mind for some time to come. And naturally, he reflected with a helpless groan, that slit in the skirt was high enough to show off an expanse of beautifully shaped leg, tanned and muscled from months of training in fields, forests, mountains, or wherever the monsters yielded the best gain. Not only that, but, just his luck, he had found out for himself when she spun that, as she had complained to Faris, who had shaken her head in fond amusement at the amount of fun that her sister was getting out of something so simple, there really was no underwear that she could wear with the thing. Certainly, that glimpse of her firm, rounded bottom, unclothed beneath the dress, would appear in his dreams that night...  
  
'Oh, knock it off,' he thought viciously at his body, reacting swiftly to the young woman on the other side of the tree. 'Think unappealing thoughts...think unappealing thoughts...think unappealing thoughts...uh...swordplay!'  
  
That worked remarkably well for about a second, until the sword became something else with which he longed to impale a certain someone in a very different way.  
  
'Dammit! Okay...uh...Galuf in that dress!'  
  
As he grimaced at the thought in the same pain that had wracked Faris earlier, Bartz reflected joyously that he just might have done it.  
  
Then a strange thing happened as he moved to leave.  
  
The ludicrous image of the old man wearing the blue dancing gown, waving a ribbon, which fluttered around him in some ghastly parody of coquettishness, began to shift.  
  
Seconds later, Bartz slammed his fist angrily into the ground.  
  
"Dammit!" he howled as, once again, Reina danced about his mind, entreating him to undress her and take her in a variety of interesting ways, such as the real Reina never would have.  
  
'Ah! Chocobos!' he thought in triumph. 'Nothing sexy about them.'  
  
Bartz thought very hard, and the next moment, an image drifted into his head.  
  
Reina, riding naked on the back of a particularly lucky chocobo, blowing him a kiss as the wind whipped her hair about her face.  
  
'Argh! Even you have betrayed and deserted me, Boko!' he wailed internally.  
  
He sighed again, slumping back against the tree.  
  
Why was she getting to him so badly, anyway? Who cared if she was gorgeous? He'd seen plenty of gorgeous women before, not least of all Faris! And in reality, Faris was far more his type, with her attitude that it was a waste of time to stay in one place when you could be travelling, her very clear knowledge that women ought to be held to the same standards, and have the same opportunities as men, and her vehement conviction that a conventional life held no interest for her. Yet aside from the initial shock of going to wake up someone he had assumed to be a man and finding instead a woman beautiful with the stunning, untamed beauty that set every man's head spinning just a little, she hadn't affected him at all. Part of that, he supposed, was that he'd become too used to thinking of her as a man to think of her as a woman unless the evidence confronted him.  
  
Still, that didn't answer why the pirate's tiny, exquisite, and very, very innocent little sister was currently sending him into hiding.  
  
"Bartz?"  
  
'Oh, no...not her.'  
  
"Uh, hey, Reina," he greeted with a slightly forced smile as she leaned up against the tree next to him, legs crossed in front of her.  
  
"Are you okay? We thought we heard you yelling."  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied immediately, carefully not looking at her.  
  
"Are you sure?" she pressed, climbing over him and forcing him to meet her eyes. "You're kind of a strange colour."  
  
"Yeah, I'm good."  
  
"Well, if you're sure," she said dubiously, sitting back down beside him. Then, impulsively, she threw an arm over his shoulder. "If something's wrong, though, you'd better tell us. If we're going to be a team, you have to confide in us, right? You can't pretend to be tough all the time."  
  
'Wow.that was irrelevant,' Bartz might have been thinking in comment to this totally out of the blue speech that actually applied very little to him, had the soft breasts pressed against his side and the sweet scent of her hair, combined with the salty scent of sweat, not utterly derailed all thoughts.  
  
'AAARGH!' he thought instead. Why did she have to be so clueless and concerned and sweet and altogether infuriating?  
  
'Just my luck,' he thought sourly, leaning almost unconsciously into the hug. 'Of all the girls in the world, I've got to fall for most aggravating one in existence.'  
  
Then, as his own thought sunk in fully, he froze.  
  
'FALL for her?'  
  
He pulled back and stared in hopeless bewilderment at this girl gazing curiously back at him. Then, as something clicked in his brain, he disentangled himself from her and stood abruptly.  
  
"I'm going for a walk," he announced brusquely before striding quickly away.  
  
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Minutes later, Faris approached the tree. It had been some minutes since Reina had left to check on Bartz, and this place was still new to them, and thus very dangerous. As the erstwhile pirate peered around the tree, she frowned at the sight of her little sister sitting cross-legged on the ground, an expression on her face one that could only be described as a pout.  
  
"And what be the problem with ye, Reina?"  
  
Reina sighed heavily, climbing carefully to her feet and brushing the bits of grass off of her dress. As the flower in her hair began to slip, she tugged it free, scowled at it, and tossed it aside.  
  
"Bartz got mad and took off."  
  
"Aye," Faris nodded thoughtfully, dropping her eyes to hide her mirth from the younger girl, who would doubtlessly not appreciate it right now. "Do ye really think he be mad?"  
  
"Why else would he leave like that?" Reina demanded plaintively.  
  
"Ye might be a bit overwhelming to a lad dressed that way," Faris suggested mildly. "It might be hard for him not to notice."  
  
Reina threw her hands up in exasperation.  
  
"Well, why does the big idiot think I put it on in the first place?!"  
  
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End Notes: Hee! That was fun! Anyway, it feels like this could either be left as a one-shot or continued with equal ease. Any thoughts? More fluffy romantic tension between these two? ^_^ 


End file.
